Mastercard has announced it will expand its presence in Ireland, hiring 175 new employees in Dublin focused on driving innovation in payments.

Roles include software engineers, blockchain specialists, data scientists, project managers, analysts, product designers, cloud infrastructure specialists and information security experts.

The company’s Leopardstown office currently houses 380 staff and is the global headquarters of research and development arm Mastercard Labs. It has taken up more space there and signed a lease until 2026, to accommodate growing numbers of staff.

Mastercard stated that virtual and augmented reality experiences will transform the way people shop and bring stores into the living room, while chatbots enabled with payments technology will allow consumers to book flights or order a takeway without leaving a messaging app. The teams in Dublin are exploring a range of blockchain solutions, as well as using artificial intelligence to help secure payments.

The country’s minister for business, enterprise and innovation, Heather Humphreys, welcomed the move as a result of work to have the right conditions to attract knowledge-based sectors. “Ireland is now a very attractive location for international FinTech and payment companies from all over the world and announcements like this one today illustrate that our policies are continuing to deliver tangible results.”

Ken Moore, executive vice president and head of Mastercard Labs, added: “The vibrant culture we have here makes it the perfect place to recruit for these highly-skilled roles. We need great minds who can look outside of Mastercard’s traditional payments expertise and create solutions to benefit our customers around the world, and I’m excited to grow our business here.”

The creation of these new jobs follows Mastercard’s recent announcement that it would bring its digital and physical payment teams under one organisation. The newly-formed Products and Innovation team will bring core products, digital payments, Mastercard Labs and processing activities together.

Share Story: